Conversations skills are the crux of great conversations.
Because most of the time, it’s not the words that come out of your mouth that determine whether someone will like you, it’s how you make them feel. And when others feel good, they’ll want to continue talking with you.
So here are the primary conversational skills for you to implement to make others feel good while they’re conversing with you.
- Eye Contact:
- Your focus takes up your time and your time is your most precious asset. And which body part do you use for focus? Think about it, whenever you’re focused on something, your eyes are locked on to the object of your focus. So. By whenever you make eye contact, you’re implying to the other person that they’re important to you.
- Active Listening:
- It’s not enough to have eye contact. You must shut up and listen. No, not just verbally. You must make your brain shut up with its internal thoughts about what you’re going to say after that person stops talking. Because when you genuinely listen, you’ll create actual follow up questions or statements related to what they’ve just said and that’ll cue that you actually listened.
- Correct Body Language:
- Your body language is a huge cue to the other person of whether you’re actually listening. So if you’re objective is to build rapport, here are body languages that you’ll want to utilize. Draw your upper body closer to them when they speak rather than leaning back. Keep an open body language, which means keep your hands by your side rather than crossed across your body. Nod your head only after they make a point, not after every word. But most importantly, if your intention is to actually listen then you’ll organically produce body language that cues to the other person that you’re listening. You only need to focus on your body language if you’re one who overthinks your body language which leads to inorganic body language.
- Friendly Intonation:
- Intonation also cues how you feel about the other person talking to you and influences how they feel about you. If you sound aggressive when someone is talking to you, they’ll feel less comfortable opening up. If you sound friendly, they’ll want to continue. If you sound monotone, they’ll perceive that you’re bored and might feel less motivated to continue. So. It’s important that you sound friendly with a flux of tone.
Additional Conversational Skills:
- Talk Slowly:
- When you talk slowly, you come off as secure. Not just that, it sounds more pleasant so people will naturally want to listen. Ever heard someone that talks like they haven’t taken a breath after 30 seconds? Damn annoying and makes you roll your eyes when they take a breath and start round 2? Yeah, don’t be that person.
- Express Emotions:
- Want someone to appreciate you? Express emotions because you’ll be more relatable. Nearly everyone is emotional and easily understands a word that conveys emotions and therefore can help someone put their feet in your shoes to really understand you. Not everyone will try to understand facts because facts by itself are boring.
- Ask tons of relevant questions:
- The best conversationalists aren’t the ones who talk the most. They’re the ones who ask the best questions to continue a conversation. Additionally, by asking questions, you have the power to navigate the conversation so navigate it to a place of your interest to keep the other person engaged as well as yourself.
